Rollin' Dirty in Honduras

Not really although I would love to do some illegal activities (from the USA's perspective) while I'm here.  Generally this means bullfights but one never knows what will present itself.

I'm actually referring to driving through Honduras, which I've done a lot of in the past week or so.  Last week to Tegucigalpa, Monday to La Esperanza, and yesterday to Guatemala (almost).  All of this time in the car (as a passenger) allows me to appreciate how different this is than being a consultant in the US.

For instance, to start a travel day, I'm not picked up by my usual cab and whisked off to Seatac but rather riding shotgun over potholed roads to meetings I didn't realize I was going to have.  And, the meeting is much different than those that I'm used to setting up via Outlook and client admins.  Let's take Monday as an example. 

We drive for 2.5 hours to La Esperanza (photo to the right) to meet up with Marcko Theodoracopoulos.  Marcko literally wrote the book(s) on growing lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, and potatoes in Honduras (fascinating reads here).  However, unlike my previous interviewees, Marcko arrived on a four-wheeler.  He’s a big guy; Greek ethnically but born and raised in Honduras.  We sat outside on the patio of a small internet café and chatted for a couple of hours on opportunities to increase vegetable production in Honduras.  Between Marcko, Chema, and Rynaldo (on the motorcycle in the picture), there was a lot of vegetable growing experience present.  I recorded the conversation as well so I could review it later, to make sure my Spanish could be double-checked.  Chalk up another difference there.  After the meeting we left La Esperanza to head back to San Pedro Sula.

On the way back from the meeting, I appreciate one of the biggest differences: being in Honduras.  Driving here really makes this apparent.    

The main road between the two largest cities (San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa) is more like a small highway we’d see in the country with some nice sections.  It twists and turns and changes from one lane both ways to two lanes (nice section pictured to the left) and back to one lane constantly.  There are many potholes and you have to be ready to move the car to avoid them.  As long as you are on the alert, it works out fine.  Sometimes you will pass an old truck that has broken down along the side of the road.  You know you are coming up on one because there are leafy branches torn off and placed in the road ahead of where the truck is.  Always three, for some reason.  These trucks must have to wait for a while before they are taken away or repaired.  I saw one with the driver sleeping beside his truck on the shoulder (it was early morning so I assumed he spent the night there).

And the country is beautiful. Every thirty minutes you pass by kids playing soccer just off the road in a yard, alley, or on a field.  Everything is green and there are hills and mountains everywhere.  The roads tend to dip in and out of the valleys so there are lots of gorgeous views filled with clouds and mist, rainy season as I'm sure you knew.  The rain is a problem here though.  I’ve passed multiple small landslides just off the road.  The land is especially prone to landslides.  In fact, a larger version of the little landslides I've seen has knocked out a portion of the main road between San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa.  Which means that you can’t even take the main highway the whole way to the capital.  You need to pull off the main highway and climb a steep dirt track to arrive at another pitted stretch of road.  Taking this, you circle the Tegucigalpa valley until you reach the next highway (about twenty-five minutes away).  It is really a sight to see the semis climbing and descending the dirt road.  If only this were the worst damage rain ever did to Honduras.

In summary: Honduras is not like the US.  Stay tuned for more revelations.